You switched to Safari — or you’re thinking about it — and there’s one Chrome extension you can’t leave behind: Session Buddy. The saved sessions, the crash recovery, the calm certainty that your 60 research tabs are always one click from coming back.
Here’s the short answer: Session Buddy is not available for Safari. It’s a Chrome extension, there’s no Safari version on the App Store, and the developer has not announced a port. If you search “Session Buddy” in the Mac App Store, you’ll find unrelated apps borrowing the name recognition.
The good news: the workflow Session Buddy made essential exists on Safari — you just need a tool built for Safari’s extension system. This guide covers why there’s no direct port, what to look for in a replacement, and how the real Safari options compare.
Why There’s No Session Buddy for Safari
Session Buddy is built on Chrome’s extension APIs. It reads Chrome’s tab and window state, stores snapshots, and restores them through Chrome’s own session machinery.
Safari works differently. Since Safari 14, extensions must ship as native macOS apps containing a web extension — distributed through the Mac App Store and subject to Safari’s stricter permission model. Porting a Chrome extension isn’t a repackage; it means building and maintaining a native Swift app. Most Chrome extension developers, including Session Buddy’s, haven’t made that investment.
So a “Session Buddy for Safari” search dead-ends. What you actually need is a native Safari session manager that covers the same jobs.
What Session Buddy Users Actually Need
Strip away the interface and Session Buddy does four things people rely on:
- Session snapshots. Save the complete state of your browser — every window, every tab — as a named collection you can return to.
- Crash recovery. When the browser dies, your sessions survive, because they’re stored outside the browser’s own fragile session state.
- An organized, searchable list. Saved sessions with titles, dates, and search across everything you’ve stowed away.
- Guilt-free tab closing. The confidence to close 50 tabs because you know they’re saved.
Any real Safari replacement needs to cover these four. Here’s how the options stack up.
Session Buddy Alternatives for Safari, Compared
| Feature | TabControl | SessionRestore | Tab Space | OneTab (Safari) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-session snapshots (all windows) | ✅ One click, named + timestamped | ✅ Saves sessions | ❌ Current window focus | ❌ Flat list of closed tabs |
| Restore exact window/tab layout | ✅ Windows, positions, pinned state | ⚠️ Tabs, limited layout detail | ⚠️ Workspace-based | ❌ Reopens from list |
| Search saved tabs | ✅ Title, URL, content | ⚠️ Basic | ✅ Within workspaces | ❌ Scan the list |
| Memory management | ✅ Tab suspension | ❌ No | ❌ No | ⚠️ Only by closing tabs |
| AI organization | ✅ On-device analysis | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Sync between Macs | ✅ iCloud | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Price | $3.99 one-time | Paid | One-time purchase | Free |
A note on the smaller players: SessionRestore and Session Pal are lightweight Safari session savers that cover the basics. They’re worth a look if you want the absolute minimum. The comparison above focuses on the options with enough depth to actually replace Session Buddy’s role in your workflow.
TabControl: The Closest Thing to Session Buddy on Safari
TabControl is a native Safari extension built around the same core idea as Session Buddy: your browsing sessions are work product, and they deserve a save button.
Session snapshots. One click captures every tab across every open window — titles, URLs, pinned state, positions, which tab was active. Sessions get names and timestamps, and you can keep as many as you want: Monday’s research, the client project, the trip planning. How session management works.
Crash recovery. Sessions are stored in a local SQLite database, completely independent of Safari’s internal session state. Safari can crash, restart, or update — your saved sessions are untouched. If you’ve ever lost tabs to a Safari restart, our tab recovery guide covers the emergency options; TabControl is the structural fix.
Beyond Session Buddy. Two things Session Buddy never did: tab suspension, which reclaims memory from inactive tabs without closing them, and on-device AI analysis that names and categorizes your sessions automatically. Plus iCloud sync, so sessions follow you across Macs.
Native and private. TabControl is a Mac App Store app, runs entirely on-device, and sends no browsing data to external servers.
Migrating from Session Buddy to Safari
Moving your existing saved sessions over takes about ten minutes:
- Export from Session Buddy. In Chrome, open Session Buddy, select a saved session, and use the export function to copy the tab URLs (Markdown or plain-text list both work).
- Open the batch in Safari. Paste the URLs into a text editor, then open them in Safari — or just open the handful that matter. This is also a natural moment to let go of dead tabs.
- Save as a TabControl session. With the tabs open, click TabControl in the Safari toolbar and save the session with the same name it had in Session Buddy.
- Repeat for the sessions you actually use. Most people discover they only need a fraction of their archive. The rest can stay in the export file as a backup.
From then on, the workflow is the same one you had on Chrome: save before you close, restore when you need it back.
The Bottom Line
There is no Session Buddy for Safari, and waiting for a port isn’t a strategy. If you want the same job done — full-session snapshots, crash-proof storage, searchable history — TabControl is the most complete option, and it adds memory management and AI organization that Session Buddy never had. For the wider landscape, see our full comparison of Safari tab managers.
Leaving Chrome but not your workflow? Get TabControl for Safari — $3.99 one-time on the Mac App Store.